captain Barrel Anderson, USAF Januarll, 1985 ARMY AIR FORCES STATIONS A Guide to the Stations Where U.S . Army Air Forces Personnel Served in the United Kingdom During World War II by Captain Barry J. Anderson, USAF Research Division USAF Historical Research Center Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama 31 January 1985 (cid:9) CONTENTS Page Section INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ARMY AIR FORCES STATION LIST. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Part 1 - Numerical Listing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Part 2 - Alphabetical Listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Part 3 - Geographical Listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 United States military units assigned in the United Kingdom (UK) during World War II had to avoid any direct connection with specific geographic locations for security reasons. Most United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) units therefore identified their location with a "station number." Although each USAAF installation in the UK was named--generally after the nearest railway station--official correspondence and unit histories most often employed the station number . Without access to an index of the various station numbers, the locations and units assigned in Great Britain are difficult to fathom, if they can be determined at all . Hence the need for a station listing to aid the researcher and historian. The Army Air Forces (AAF) numbers allocated to stations ranged from AAF-101 through AAF-925. But nothing is ever as simple as it might first appear. Not all AAF numbers were used, and not all installations had numbers (although the named ones are in the minority). Most of the stations appear in this listing, which is arranged sequentially, alphabetically, and by location . Nonetheless, more than 40 years later, it is impossible to identify accurately every UK facility occupied by the USAAF during World War II . The sources used to compile this list included numerous station lists prepared by the USAAF in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. These and other primary sources in the USAF Historical Research Center collection all date from late 1941 to late 1945 . BACKGROUND Even with a number and name, finding a USAAF airfield in the United Kingdom during World War II was no easy matter . Although the UK is a small nation, a little smaller in size than the state of Oregon, its 94,214 square miles supported an inventory of USAAF airfields, depots, and installations that numbered in the hundreds at war's end. However small the territory, for young American pilots newly arrived from the midwest and used to training in the blue skies over Texas, it was easy to get lost . England was (and still is) a patchwork of fields, towns, and villages, all looking remarkably similar from the air. And for aircrew members accustomed to using a single crossroads or country church as a landmark, accurate navigation became crucial . Even on the ground, crewmen travelling from place to place could find navigating difficult for in 1940, when a German invasion appeared imminent, the British had removed practically all the road signs and mile markers. Indeed, navigation became such a problem that a special "Pathfinder" school was established at RAF* Alconbury (AAF-102), Huntingdonshire.** Many navigators found themselves on orders for AAF-102 to learn the mysteries of British H2S radio navigation gear from experts of the 482d Bombardment Group. If one did find a newly constructed USAAF airfield, security procedures required that it be referred to in orders and on other travel documents by AAF number . *During World War II, each USAAF-occupied airfield was prefixed by the term "Royal Air Force Station." Abbreviated to "RAF," this policy (with some exceptions) has remained in effect until the present. Thus, references to Alconbury Air Base, or Alconbury Field, are technically incorrect. **Huntingdonshire and several other English counties "disappeared" during a postwar local government reorganization . The area formerly known as "Huntingdonshire" was amalgamated into Cambridgeshire . In this study, the county locations given are those extant in 1942-1945. Several variations of the basic AAF station numbering system were in use at different UK headquarters . Some fighter units prefixed the number with an "F," leaving out the "AA." RAF Duxford, headquarters for the 66th Fighter Wing and 78th and 350th Fighter Groups, was known as F-357. Eventually the list of AAF numbers grew to include a small number of installations outside the British Isles. There were four U.S.-occupied airfields in Iceland during the war--one of these designated AAF-354.* It was home for the 14th Fighter Group and the 50th Fighter Squadron . Similarly, after the 6 June 1944 landings in Normandy, Ninth Air Force units and headquarters began moving rapidly to the Continent. Some Dutch, Belgian, and French bases were also assigned AAF numbers . The expansion of USAAF airfields was so rapid, however, that the USAAF devised a series of new numbering systems, and some of the previously designated bases in Europe also acquired numbers with A-, B-, or Y- prefixes: Chievres (AAF-181), Belgium, was also A-84; Merville, France, sported the dual designation AAF-182 and B-53. Further east, on the Russian Front, United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe established its eastern headquarters at Poltava, near Kiev in the USSR . Poltava (AAF-559) was one of three Ukraine installations operated *Station lists are not specific, but there were four airfields used by the AAF in Iceland. Reykyavik, the main tactical field, was under RAF jurisdiction and was not used extensively by the USAAF. But the United States constructed Meeks and Patterson Fields at Reykyavik, as well as Kassos Field on the north side of the island . Meeks and Patterson were developed jointly as major staging points on one of the important air transport routes to Europe . in the Soviet Union by Headquarters, Eastern Command. The others were established at Piryatin (AAF-560) and Mirgorod (AAF-561). AIRFIELD CONSTRUCTION U.S . Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Viscount Halifax* met in the summer of 1942 and on 3 September agreed to USAAF operations from the United Kingdom. Under terms of the reciprocal aid pact, the agreement called for the British to supply all the facilities necessary for the USAAF. But labor shortages in Britain and the need to get airfields built as quickly as possible led to the use of U.S . aviation engineers. No charge was made for their use, since the labor was considered "training." In fact, American engineers became a vital element in a severely stretched British construction program. In February 1945 another agreement made the British government responsible for all capital expenditures on airfields constructed for or improved by the USAAF.1 By the end of 1942, USAAF leaders chose to build large bases, each large enough to accommodate a complete combat group so that each combat unit might have its own service group assigned .2 Earlier, VIII Bomber Command planned to divide its forces into five wing areas, each composed of 15 airfields. The bulk of these installations at the time were in use by RAF Bomber Command, but none were large enough to accommodate an entire U.S . heavy bombardment group. British planners--and their U.S . counterparts--assumed that each group in VIII Bomber Command would station a squadron of bomber aircraft at its *Sir Charles Ingram Courtenay Wood, 2nd Earl of Halifax, M.P. main base with attendant service facilities, and then use satellite stations for the remainder of the group's squadrons within the wing area . But by November 1942 British and American military leaders realized that the USAAF effort in the UK was increasing so rapidly that it would be more productive to build or enlarge airfields to accommodate a whole group, rather than separate the squadrons as each RAF wing* did. Both fighter and bomber units were stationed in the same general areas, resulting in heavy concentrations of USAAF stations, personnel, and aircraft in East Anglia, the Midlands, and the West Country. As the air war progressed, aerial priorities changed and the Eighth Air Force gave up those bases programmed for its use in the 5th Wing area northeast of London, predominantly in Essex. Among the airfields planned, but not built for USAAF use, were facilities at Ingatestone, Maldon, Southminster, Burnham-on-Crouch, and High Roding . In 1943 Lt Gen Ira Eaker returned the area to RAF Bomber Command and concentrated his bomber forces among the East Anglian bases.3 Of the more than 140 United Kingdom airfields constructed or improved by or for the USAAF, Air Transport Command occupied 7, and Eighth and Ninth Air Forces occupied the others . Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Forces both fielded units in the UK, but in 1943 moved their operations to the North African and Mediterranean theaters . But until construction was completed *The echelons of the Royal Air Force, in order of ascending size, were squadron, wing, and group, whereas the USAAF used the designations squadron, group, and wing . This also explains the rationale behind the RAF system of officer ranks: squadron leader, wing commander, and group captain, respectively; each equivalent in rank to major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel in the USAAF. on the majority of airfields, American units used RAF stations on a "joint use," or "lodger" basis. Such airfields included Ashchurch, Bisterne, Headcorn, High Halden, Kingsnorth, Lashenden, Lymington, Staplehurst, Williamstrip, Winkton, and Woodchurch . USAAF use of these stations usually predated 1944, although USAAF aircraft would land at RAF fields in emergency situations . Airfield construction can be divided between a small number built by U.S . engineers and a greater number constructed by the British . American aviation engineering battalions built Andrews Field (Great Saling), Birch, Boreham, Chipping Ongar, Debach, Eye, Glatton, Gosfield, Great Dunmow, Harrington, Matching, Nuthamstead, Raydon, and Stansted (Mountfichet). Harrington was constructed for the RAF in exchange for Little Staughton, built by the British for the USAAF. (Figure 1 illustrates the typical airdrome layout approved by the Engineering Section of VIII Air Force Service Command in March 1943 .) By 1 June 1943, the Air Ministry had 54 bomber aerodromes under construction for the USAAF, in addition to the 13 just mentioned. Construction of fighter fields was also underway, and the British allocated 10 of a total of 22 for exclusive U.S . use, with the remainder designated as emergency landing fields . Six combat crew replacement centers, the photo reconnaissance base at Mount Farm (AAF-234), and another 19 observation and transport fields also took shape rapidly amid the British landscape. Apart from this massive airfield construction program, the USAAF also took over numerous RAF stations . Some of these sorely needed stations the RAF wanted to keep but were nonetheless surrendered to the USAAF. Referring to this spirit of generosity between (cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9) ,..mmm.~ 7 STANDARD APPROVED TYPICAL AIRDROME FACILITIES BRITISH ISLES ANtoK AT IM MPQ EIGMTM AIR FORGO C11AW)N ON L~(ft TYPICAL AIRDROME LAYOUT usml Eo $tECommEwato I APPROVED SIw4COL IN BRITISH ISLES ~~~ve.r .~.C+ MAwr, n Fig . 1 01 A 1 0 0 A1MAR 4, 1